Morning Everyone, like everyone else it is dark and dismal and also tipping it down here. Luckily it had eased up earlier in the morning when I took Amber for her walk.

Helena, enjoy your walk. Check on your HP printer actually on the printer and not on pc that it is on wireless and not on usb connection. I seem to remember I had problems with that when I first got mine. This is the 3rd of HP printers I have had but the first one that was optional wireless or connected and I use connected but it kept sticking to wireless so I guess yours could be reverse to mine.

Lynn. glad you are getting motivated towards moving now.

Lore, hope your mum's arm is comfortable this morning and that she will see sense and have it plastered.

Bev. so glad you are getting pretty organized at home now just will take some sorting when you get over there.

Waves to everyone else on the thread and wishes you all a lovely day, God bless.

Morning peeps

Well I was disgusted at dog training class last night. This is the club my late parents founded 40 years ago. A lady who has a lovely little crossbreed, who does all the right things, training at home every day & her little dog has come on leaps & bounds, asked when he would be able to move up a class & was told in no uncertain terms that it was up to the "head"trainer"to decide & her dog needed more training on heelwork & that he wasn't ready yet.

The only problem with this is that she was asked by 2 of the other trainers to assess the dog 2 weeks ago & still hasn't. Last week through out the whole time the dog was training, the"head"trainer was sat down, behind a table piled with stuff that prevented her from seeing the dogs training deep in conversation with one of her close friends & never even looked at the dogs.

This week she didn't even know the lady was at the club for half an hour !.

There was another couple of dogs who have been moved up a class & one of them TBH is nowhere need ready as it it still being trained on a head collar otherwise it pulls too strongly for it's owner, it doesn/t do it's stays & last night during recall training it ran off & wouldn't go back to it's owner. The other little dog is at the same stage as the lady's dog.

This"head"trainer's own dog pulls like a train on lead, doesn't do a proper recall & she has someone else take it into the advanced class.

Words almost failed me when I heard(literally)what the "head"trainer was saying to her. Basically it was "don't ask again, I will TELL you when I consider your dog is ready !" How she could say this when she hadn't been nothered enough to assess the dog's level of training is beyond me & she is running the risk of the lady stopping coming to the club.

None of the trainers has an understanding of teaching dogs to walk to heel without pulling, learning the sit & down without being forced into position, even the more recently qualified trainer goes against the methods she was trained to use during her course.(which toold her nearly 5 years to complete :-O )

Even in the advanced class the dogs are expected to do scent, before being taught to retrieve, sendaway without being taught to run out & back to the handler & to go down on command.

At our friday fun class we have dogs doing super sendaways & recall to heel, brilliant recalls, loose lead heelwork as well as lots of silly things just because the dogs actively enjoy doing them. All done with treats, clicker & practice at home.

Rant over, the sun is shining, Roodee goes for another check up & then home to Josie's for the long weekend.

Might go to a dog show on Monday depending on the weather.

Hope everyone has a good or better day today XX

Morning

I'm sorry to hear about Zena's paw and Rucksack's tummy. I hope both improve soon and Dillon's pink bit does too.

I think Loki is suffering from allergies as he is scratching and chewing and trying to scratch his muzzle along the floor.

We had a rainy walk - I don't mind that but it's quite warm and I got too hot in my raincoat. Loki loved it though and beamed at me.

Not sure what I'm doing today. I want to get to the library so that Carys can do the next books in the reading challenge and she has a swimming lesson later.

I hope everyone has a super day.

Joedee, sounds to me as if you are far better qualified than them to be the head trainer, why aren't you doing it or do you not have the time? Why when your parents founded the club did you lose position. Makes you cross when time moves on and people move in and forget the history of the class. I admire your tenacity in not saying anything. Bet your tongue hurts where you bit it hard. Lol.

Edit, just seen on another thread that you do in fact do judging, take back what I said then.

I am waiting for Effie to take my computer to see if he can find out why I am having problems with Dogsey [everything else is fine] leaving his loan one again. Hopefully he has not loaned it out since the last time so has not wiped all my stuff off it. If he has I will be in deep doodoos as I will have to change all passwords yet again.

Also waiting for Dr Vadim to come and give Pereg her rabies shot but I have been waiting a week [he was supposed to come last Thursday] and knowing Vadim he will turn up when he decides to, with no warning. Probably while I am in the loo!

Anyhow, even though I have been told not to I am also going to have to risk trying to get up the 45° angle at the end of my ramp, praying that Xanadu does not tip backwards, as my refrigerator is almost empty and I must get vegetables and fruit. And yoghurt and soft cheese and cottage cheese - and just about everything.

If I do not return you will know that Xanadu did not make it...

Have a good day everyone.

Hi everyone
MALKA,please be careful xx
Lovely morning here
JOEDEE,agree with MOYRA,you sound way better qualified
LYNN,hope you manage to get a lot done today,not sure when the move is??
Few doggies a bit poorly(( hugs))
BEV,hope Lily's ok
Hi MOYRA,HELENA,PAT,JENNY G,TW( sleepy head!!)LORE,sorry if I missed anyone.
Have a great day all xx

Oh LS

Beautiful sunshine here, sounds like you have 'our' weather darn sarf, and you can keep it. Have actually put the umbrella up for the girls, and may even venture out in shorts today as the sky is a lovely blue with a few wisps of cloud
At last Summer Is Back, purleese stay for a while, purlllleeeeeese
Malka, I hope you are OK in Xanadu, please check in the minute you are back from your venture Outside. Is your leg healing any better now at all. You're more worry to me than Keshi and Mabs rolled all into one, I don't know
Hope Rucksack gets better as the day goes on Jenny, if its not one its the other. You're best staying there with him, because goodness knows what you'll come home to if you do go over to see your mum, plus the weather sounds vile and its no fun driving in that when you really don't have to.
Bev, hope Lily looks a bit better today, could be the worry of you packing and her wondering if you are going to pack her or not. Greys are very sensitive aren't they. Glad to hear someone is coming to help you, its a lot to have to do on your own.
Packing day for you today as well Lynn, only you're all at the beginning of it still. Hope you get some more stuff thrown away today, its very hard isn't it.
Dillon is such a monkey isn't he, then again the larger the breed the longer it takes them to grow up and put their serious head on.
Joedee, that sounds dreadful to me I can well understand why you are so very upset about it all.
Have you thought about maybe starting another club with proper instructors who are prepared to take the dogs and owners through the stages in a proper fashion and give feedback and advice. I don't know what I would do without the club I'm in now, but I didn't half have to go through the mill with so many 'experts' that just ignored my requests for help or just weren't effective. I'd done a fair bit of training many years earlier, so I just knew I wasn't in the right place because none of it matched the type of club I'd been in, but I couldn't find anywhere else, lots of people in that same boat still.
Have a good day at the library Linda, I used to love going to the library, it was a branch library attached to the local community centre that was over the road from where I lived, and I used to always be in there. I have always loved reading, and still do. Have you thought about giving Loki a piriton or can he not have anything like that because of the epilepsy
You've got yet another busy day ahead of you Pat, running people from beach to beach by the sounds of it. Would love some of that heat here, looking more promising todays, but it would be lovely to have wall to wall sunshine for a long period of time.
Nippy, there is no thunder here, so you are maybe lighter than you think

Good morning fellow members It is a strange damp morning here with very low cloud and warmer outside than in. I have been out to do the shopping before the weekend rush and having put it all away I am off to make some vegetable soup for lunch .

Enjoy your day everyone

LOL not quite as simple as me losing position, I only use positive training methods & sadly both my parents were of the old school of compulsion & their golden girl-now head trainer is simply carrying on in the same vein, despite the fact that the Instructors training course now includes clicker & reward based training & not compulsion.

The trainers at the club are"qualified"by passing an exam held by a KC recognised breed club & the courses are centrally run.

The main problem is that none of the trainers really have a grasp on how dogs learn & retain exercises & it's easier for them to use the old methods in their frequently overcrowded over long classes.

I find it very sad that they lose members, because they do not advise people to do a little & often training at home, discourage them from using rewards(despite using themselves with their own dogs :-O ), they don't have a structured progression & they have only two classes-beginners & advancers. They do masses of heelwork & very little else

I've had years of practice of keeping stum & proving the way I train works without their assistance